The Turners
by Eaglesgirl
Summary: After ten years at sea, Will meets his son and is reunited with Elizabeth. He is finally able to live with his family on land.
1. Coming Home

**READ THIS FIRST!** It is very important that you go and click on the link in my profile and read it FIRST or you won't understand this story!!!

Set after POTC3

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the plot line. If I did own _Pirates_, they wouldn't have taken out that rather important scene mentioned above.

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**The Turners**

**_Chapter 1_**

**_Coming Home_**

"Mother! Hurry. It's almost sunrise! Father's coming!" An energetic young boy called running out of a small cottage.

"William, stop running. It's still dark, we have plenty of time."

"Do you think he will know where to find us?" The boy asked as his mother fell into step with him.

"Yes, I'm sure he'll find us."

"But how can he know? He hasn't been here." The boy suddenly felt downhearted. He dropped his head and began to drag his feet.

"Don't worry William. You father will be here. I promise." Elizabeth paused, catching a glimpse of the ocean over the edge of the cliff. "The sky is starting to get lighter. He'll be here soon." She told her son. He didn't respond. "Why don't you sing a pirate song, just to call your father to us?"

The boys smiled, deciding that the plan would work.

_We pillage, we plunder, we riffle and loot._

_Drink up me hearties, yo ho. _

The boy stopped walking when he reached the edge of the cliff and scanned the huge expanse of ocean in front of him. Elizabeth came up next to the boy and draped her arm over his shoulders.

_We kidnap and ravage and don't give a hoot._

_Drink up me hearties, yo ho._

Suddenly, there was a green flash, just as the sun peaked over the horizon. The boy abandoned his song and stood watching as the ship that had appeared out of no-where approached himself and his mother.

Elizabeth was able to see a blood red shirt on the ship that approached and knew immediately that it was Will. The woman excitedly hugged her son closer.

William, however, became suddenly worried. 'Does he know I was born? What if he doesn't like me? What if he doesn't love Mother anymore?' William felt like bolting back to his little room in the cottage he had lived in all his life. He wasn't prepared.

The ship began to get closer. William, feeling shy, slid back so he was hidden behind his mother. She was so intent on seeing her husband again, that she didn't seem to notice her son's shift in position.

Elizabeth was positive that the man was Will. She needed to get down to the tiny beach below the cliff. Grabbing her son's hand, she pulled him inland and turned onto the well-worn path she and William used to get to the water's edge everyday.

William wished that his Uncle Jack was with him at that moment, but he knew that the man would not be visiting until next fall at the earliest. His uncle always seemed to make William feel more at ease when it came to the boy's father. Uncle Jack knew all about William Turner II and he saw him from time to time as he sailed. William's mother was always interested to hear how 'Will' was doing.

Jack, however, never said a word about Elizabeth or her son to Will. As Captain of the _Flying Dutchman_, he was forced to live for ten years on sea without knowing anything about his wife.

Today, ten years would be up.

Today, Elizabeth would meet him on land.

Today, Will's curse would be broken.

And, today, Will would find out about the son he never knew he had.

The _Flying Dutchman_ had stopped moving. A rowboat with six people, including the captain, was being lowered into the water. Elizabeth ran to the water's edge to wait for her husband.

William was in a panic now. He couldn't leave the beach, he knew that. He wouldn't leave his mother for anything. He decided to sit on a flat-topped rock closer to the cliff. It was where his mother gave him lessons during the day. Reading, writing, arithmetic, and music…

The rowboat was almost to shore. He could see a man with long, curly, brown hair. He was sure that man was his father. The man was smiling broadly at the woman that stood on shore jumping up and down.

He hadn't spotted the boy yet.

_He's so close._ Elizabeth considered swimming out through the surf to meet Will. She didn't though. She had dressed in her newest clothing to meet her husband. She could wait just a minute longer.

Will and the five others in the rowboat were able to ride in behind a wave.

Will stepped onto land and was immediately pushed back into the shallows of the sea when his wife jumped on him, making him tumble backwards. She kissed him quite passionately as they fell.

Seconds later, the couple came up laughing and dripping wet. The crew members who had come ashore were laughing at the exchange as well as they stepped onto the sand and pulled the boat up so the tides wouldn't pull it back into the ocean.

"Will," Elizabeth sighed, pulling her husband into a hug. "I've missed you so much."

Will hugged his wife as tightly as he could. "I've spent everyday thinking of you. But now we're free to live our life the way we want to."

They kissed again, but Elizabeth pulled away. "You need to meet someone." She said in explanation to his questioning eyes. "William," she called, "come here."

Will looked over to where his wife was looking as she pulled away from him.

A little boy with a tri-corner hat was running toward his wife.

The boy stuck close to his mother's side. Elizabeth sat down on the sand. The boy was about as tall standing as Elizabeth was sitting. "Will," Elizabeth said catching her husband's attention. "This is your son, William," she told him with one of the biggest smiles he had ever seen on his face. "He's nine years. His birthday was about three months and one week ago.

Will stared in amazement at his son.

_I have a son. I'm a father!_

Before he really knew what he was doing, Will had his son crushed in a hug. He pulled Elizabeth in as well, kissing each on the crown of their heads multiple times before finally letting them go.

Will was surprised to find tears on in his eyes and on his checks. They were his _own_ tears. They were tears of joy, of happiness, of contentment…

Of Love.

Someone cleared his throat. Will looked back to see his father, now tan and no longer sickly looking as he had been ten years earlier. "I think that maybe we should get this over with." He said holding up the knife he had given to Will years before.

"Yes. Jack told me you explained it to him. Everything is ready back at the cottage." Elizabeth said to Will.

"Then it's time."

Will wrapped his arm around Elizabeth as their son bounded on ahead of them on the path to the cottage. He was fine now that his father had accepting him and his mother so readily.

"He is so much like you, Will." Elizabeth told him. I've been teaching him to swordfight since he was six. He doesn't have a real sword though, just a wooden one. He made one for me too. He's good with his hands, and he loves the ocean. He can be so quiet too.

"It is amazing when we go into town. He just stops talking. He's so shy. He and Jack get on famously. I'm not sure if that's good though. Jack tells him all about you. And, amazingly, it's almost all the truth."

"Almost?"

"Jack won't explain anything about Tortuga to William. I thank him for that."

"Yes, well it's good to know that Jack knows when Tortuga isn't a proper conversation topic. Tell me more about William."

"He makes faces like you do. Mostly when he's confused or really excited. It makes my heart ache." Elizabeth gave a half snort about something. "He likes to sing pirate songs too. A lady in town heard him humming one of them and she reprimanded him for sing it. It was horrible."

"Are you not well liked in town?"

"No, quite the contrary. We have a good reputation. I told them that my husband was bound to serve on a ship for ten years and that this island was too far off route. They asked me why I didn't settle in a port where you came in. I told them that we had seen this place before and loved the peace of it, so we decided to live here. You told me to settle down and you would come to us when your service time was up. If anyone asks, you were the captain of a merchant ship that sailed between England and Boston, and sometimes a few of the cities in the other colonies. Alright?"

"Alright."

"I had been sending letters to a fake address. Jack was picking them up. It was mostly pictures William drew for him."

"I feel like I've missed too much." Will admitted.

"You did not have any choice. I'd rather have you here today and miss the first nine years of our son's life, than have you dead and have no son at all. Don't worry. You have the rest of your life to get to know our son." Elizabeth assured them.

They had cleared the path and were headed to a little wooden cabin straight ahead.

Will and Elizabeth went in the door and stepped into the kitchen. It was rather spacious. There was a chimney and hearth off on the wall right of the door. Water was boiling in a pot there. There were cupboards and a rectangular table in the middle of the room with six chairs.

Will went to look at the rest of his new home as they waited for the other five sailors to catch up. William, now talkative, decided to show Will around.

"This is my room." William told his father as he pulled him into a room off the kitchen. The bed was made and the room was generally picked up. Will noticed two wooden swords sitting on the boy's dresser. "Did you make these?" Will asked his son picking one up.

"Yes, I did. Mother was teaching me to swordfight with branches, so I made wood swords instead. They work better."

"I think I'll have to make a sword for you and your mother and I can teach you to fight with a real one. I was about your age when I started to apprentice at the blacksmith's shop. Maybe a bit older." Will noted the excitement on the boy's face.

Next, William brought Will into another bedroom. "This is your and Mother's room." Will saw a sword he had made for Elizabeth hung on the wall. William apparently noticed Will looking at the sword. "Before I was born, Mother went to your shop in Port Royal and bought some of the swords you made. She took all your things too. She said that she couldn't sell her father's mansion, so she still owns it."

"She has all my things?" Will said surprised. He hadn't thought about what would happen to his possessions while he was at sea.

"Yes." William said opening a drawer to one of the two dressers in the room. It revealed some clothes and a chain with a ring on it. It was his great-grandmother's ring, which he had been given when his mother died.

Before Will could explore what else Elizabeth had salvaged, William was pulling his father back into the kitchen and through another door. The room revealed itself to be a little parlor with two couches and a wall of bookshelves. He noticed a few of the swords he made on the shelves that weren't packed with books.

Through another door was a study. A desk sat in the middle just in front of a large window. There were yet more bookshelves, which were mostly covered with some of the former governor's things and a few books that Will recognized as Elizabeth's favorites.

William and Will went back into the kitchen where the others were waiting for them. The chest that contained Will's heart sat on the table and Elizabeth held the key.

"William, you need to go into your room now. You will be allowed out in a little while, alright?"

"Yes Mother." The boy scurried off to his room leaving the adults in the kitchen.

"I called to Calypso at midnight. It will only be a matter of time." Elizabeth said.

"Then, I think it is time we start." Bootstrap said placing his hand on his son's shoulder.

Elizabeth nodded and unlocked the chest. "It's time you get your heart back Will."


	2. The New Captain

**The Turners **

**Chapter 2 **

**The New Captain**

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"_It's time you get your heart back Will."_

Bootstrap, standing behind his son, took a board and whacked his son over the head with it. Will blacked out. He shouldn't be awake for this.

Elizabeth moved the chest to a chair and opened it to reveal Will's heart. She put the heart in a pot of hot water, which she had removed from the fire. Once this was done, she went over to her husband's unconscious form. She took one of his hands and waited for the sea goddess to join them.

"He'll be fine Elizabeth." Bootstrap told her. "I didn't hit him hard enough to kill him, just to put him out for a few hours. Once this is all over, he'll have his heart, his family, and a minor headache.

Elizabeth laughed a bit despite the current position. "I just want him back. I have missed him more then you could ever know."

"You love him." One of the others said.

"With all my heart," Elizabeth responded. "Everyday, I look at our son, and I'm reminded so much of Will. It has been both a blessing and a curse. I have someone to hold onto, someone who is a part of Will, but at the same time, he isn't Will."

A familiar voice filled the room, a voice that Elizabeth hadn't heard in ten years. "But you don't have to fret any longer. You'll soon have both your husband and your son."

A woman that Elizabeth once knew as Tia Dalma stood by the door. "I've had my eye on you, King of Pirates. I've been watching you and your little boy for ten years. You, Elizabeth, did for ten years what I could not. You stayed faithful to the man you love. He has too and he has done the job assigned to him. It's time to let him live."

The goddess stepped forward so she stood on the side of the table opposite Elizabeth. Will lie in the middle of them still unconscious.

"Who is taking his place?" Tia Dalma asked.

"I am." Bootstrap stepped forward.

"You must cut along the scar above his heart. Elizabeth, you must place his heart inside. I will take care of the rest." The woman nodded to them as a sign to start.

Bootstrap pulled out his knife and began to cut as Elizabeth went to the both of water and took out her husband's heart. Bootstrap had finished. Elizabeth placed the heart in her husband's chest, feeling sick to her stomach.

She took Will's hand again as Tia Dalma began to mutter over Will's body. Bootstrap held Will's other hand. After five minutes or so, Tia Dalma stood up straight and looked to Elizabeth. "Wake him up."

"Will," Elizabeth called, running her fingers across his cheek. He mumbled something incoherent. "Will, I need you to wake up."

Will slowly opened his eyes and gave a tired smile to Elizabeth.

"William Turner," Tia Dalma said.

Will shot straight up so he was sitting on the table staring at the woman.

"I told you that you had a touch of destiny about you. Welcome to the land of the living."

Will looked toward Elizabeth and smiled fondly. She found his smile infectious and began to smile as well.

"I am afraid that we aren't done yet. You must cut out the heart of your successor," Tia Dalma said pointing to Bootstrap.

Will turned a little pale, but nodded. "Are you sure you want to do this Father?" Will asked.

"William, my wife died years ago. You and your family are the only things that tie me to land. I feared death twenty or so years ago when I agreed to join Davy Jones's crew, and I still fear it now. I can live on the sea, and every ten years, I can come and see you and your family. I am the best choice for this, and I don't mind it," Bootstrap reasoned.

"Alright." Will took the knife his father handed him and cut a long slice into the skin on his father's chest. Elizabeth looked away.

Will cut out the heart and put it in the chest. The wound on Bootstrap pulled itself together and stopped bleeding.

Will handed Bootstrap the key and the chest.

"And now, it is all done," Tia Dalma told them softly. "I am sorry you had to wait so long to be together," she told Will and Elizabeth.

Bootstrap placed the key around his neck and the other four men left with the chest headed for the _Flying Dutchman_.

"I wonder," Tia Dalma started, "if I could meet your son?"

"Of course," Elizabeth said. "William, you can come out now."

"Are you alright Father?" The boy asked coming from his room.

"Yes, and I'm all yours. I want to introduce you to some people. This," he said pointing to the woman, "is Calypso."

"The sea goddess? I read all about her in books. I didn't know she was human."

"I am not human my boy. I have the ability to change form as I see it fit. When your father and mother first met me, I was in this form. The called me Tia Dalma."

"Yes, I remember that name. My mother told me. She told me bedtime stories from when she was a pirate. She told me about you."

Will continued. "This, William, is your grandfather, and the new captain of the _Flying Dutchman_."

"Hello," William said. "My mother mentioned you too, but she didn't know very much about you."

"Well," Bootstrap said, "why don't we give your mother and father some time alone and I'll answer all your questions on the beach?"

"Alright!" William said. "Can I show you the caves? There are so many, but I'll show you my favorites. You have to see all of the fish and the crabs."

"Would you mind if I joined you?" Tia Dalma asked the boy.

"No, not at all. Come on!" The boy grabbed each by the hand and pulled them out the front door and toward the path that lead to the beach.

"Well, I do believe that that was an excuse to get us alone for a few hours," Will said, turning to Elizabeth after he closed the front door.

"Yes, I do believe it was."

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I'm sorry that this was shorter, but I have school tomorrow. (ONLY 2 ½ MORE DAYS!) I probably not going to do too much with this story; it will most likely only be 5 chapters or so, but I guess we'll see.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed!


	3. Lunch and Sunset

**The Turners **

**Chapter 3**

**Lunch and Sunset**

Three hours later, Tia Dalma, Bootstrap, and William returned to the house. Elizabeth, now smiling broadly, was humming as she prepared food.

The three walked into the room. "Where is your husband?" Tia Dalma asked.

"I'm afraid that the headache Bootstrap promised him finally caught up with him." Elizabeth answered.

"Very good. You've proved your love to each other then." Tia Dalma stated.

Elizabeth reddened in response.

"How were the caves William?" Elizabeth asked her son, changing the subject.

"They were good." He answered absently. "Grandfather and Tia Dalma called a bunch of fish and crabs to them. I liked the crabs. And grandfather brought me on his ship and showed me where you had been kept prisoner. Grandfather said it's cleaner than it used to be though…"

"I'm glad for that." Elizabeth said.

"When is Uncle Jack coming to see us?" William asked.

"I don't know William. Maybe he'll come soon since your father is home now."

"Do you know Uncle Jack, Tia Dalma?"

"I did." She said, a bit angry.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

"It is a thing you wouldn't understand. It really wasn't Jack's fault either, I guess, but it doesn't make it any easier." Tia Dalma said.

"Jones made his own choice. It isn't your fault, or Jack's, or anyone else's." Will said coming out of the bedroom, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Will, that headache will not go away unless you lay back down." Elizabeth chided him.

"I know, but this is my first day ashore, and I do not want to spend the entire time staring at the ceiling."

"If you lie on your side, you could stare at the wall." Elizabeth offered.

William gave a snort in response. Elizabeth smiled fondly at the back of her husband's head. His face was now resting on his arms while he sat at the table.

"Would everyone like to sit down for lunch? I made a lot." Elizabeth said.

Everyone agreed. Will and Bootstrap sat at either end of the table. Elizabeth and William sat on either side of Will, and Tia Dalma sat next to Elizabeth.

The conversation was generally friendly.

Tia Dalma said that she had been giving Barbossa a hard time lately, constantly sending winds blowing him off course. She said it was revenge for putting her in the brig. He was getting pissed off, but seemed to know it was Calypso and kept screaming into the heavens for her to cut it out. When she wasn't bothering Barbossa, she kept sending massive amounts of her crabs to follow Jack, just to freak him out. (Which was apparently working, as he stayed in port for three weeks straight.) She promised William that she would send a cash of crabs to chase Jack to the island they were living on.

William started telling stories about town and his sword fighting lessons from his mother. He then commented about Elizabeth and Will's new habit of smiling at each other when the other wasn't aware, which he found somewhat odd and disgusting.

Bootstrap agreed with the boy and said he was about to comment on it too.

Tia Dalma rolled her eyes. Will and Elizabeth just ducked their heads and turned red…

Then they each looked at each other and smiled while the other wasn't looking.

After their early lunch, the five went outside and sat on the beach. Elizabeth sat on the sand with Will's head in her lap. His head wasn't doing much better, so Elizabeth had taken to stroking his head. He fell asleep.

Elizabeth, Bootstrap, and Tia Dalma had more idle talk while they watched William pick shells up from the surf. Elizabeth gave him string, and the boy was making necklaces for everyone.

By the time the sun was beginning to set, William had made everyone a shell necklace, which they were all forced to wear. None of them particularly minded.

William hugged Bootstrap goodbye and began to cry.

Tia Dalma said that she would visit every few years.

Will finally said goodbye to his father, which was very hard. He had spent years attempting to find his father, and then he had to free his father. He had gotten close to Bootstrap while they were on the _Flying Dutchman_ for the past ten years, and now he had to let him go again.

Finally, a little after sunset, the reunited family re-entered their home and headed for bed.

The next morning, William went to wake his mother and father. He found the door to his parents' room locked for the first time in his memory.

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Sorry this took so long. I'm not sure if I'll be able to update again before I go to Japan on June 30th, but I'll try. Next chapter, Will shall meet the townsfolk. After that, I'll put up an epilogue. 


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